Care.com review: bad practices and service 52

Hi, this is Tricia from Care.com. I'm sorry for the experience you had using our site. Per our Terms of Use, Care.com reserves the right to remove users from our community for any reason, but we do refund the member when they can't be a part of our website. Again, I do apologize for the frustration, but wish you the best of luck.

Best Wishes,
Tricia
Care.com Member Care

Greetings,

I too was cancelled! and agree...FYI their

phone number is [protected]...

...and yes your right it was an investigation to get this number. I find it questionable business practices and poor customer service for any company not to freely publish a phone number. (Hint, Hint) Also beware as you can never speak to any authority personel, only a customer service rep with a canned response such as you received in your complaint!

I suggest that you file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau...they have had to settle 59 complaints with them as of this date!

Try Go Nannies or Sitter City so far I have no complaints with them!

AJay-
This is Mike from Care.com. I just left you a response to your other posting about your removal from the Care.com community. To reiterate, Care.com is a private community that allows for families in need of help to connect with people who provide those services; Care.com is not an employer of caregivers.
We hold the right to remove anyone in the Care.com community at anytime, for any reason. If you were removed from our community because of a background check, you would have received a message from Acxiom, our background check provider, with information about the results and potential options. We can assure you that our background check process is completely FCRA compliant.
We are sorry about your concern and would like you to contact us if you would like to discuss this further. Our Member Care team can be reached at [protected], M-F 10a-7p EST.
Best of luck in your job search,
Mike

Sittercity is a scam, Babysitting jobs are false advertising, they lie and say they are matchmakers, but they are not, Parents dont even know you exist if you are not on the first page results. It sucks, save your money, before using them and protect yourself from Identity Theft. Complaints keep coming and coming from my friends. Do not use sittercity.

Dear Casey,
Your so wrong sittercity costs NO MONEY, and yes as in any site as this the more often you visit the site your profile moves to the front. There is no identity theft involved here, you are not obliged to give sittercity your social or drivers license. Any person can try to obtain your personel information from any site, thats where your own common sense comes in to protect yourself. I personally have recieved calls and jobs from sittercity and when I was with Care.com I never recieved one call! Furthmore their data base is not full of potential employers that have not sign up with them. In essence people I would waste my time to apply to that have not paid Care.com's fee. Sittercity lets you know they are not a member . I hope this helps you in your lack of being informed.
FYI I have passed a level II ACHA background check with the state of Florida that even includes fingerprinting. It is the state required background check for medical personel, teachers, daycare workers ...etc. Yet Care.com tossed me out of their data base because of their lazy business practices and unprofessional concerns for a potential employee in these hard economic times. Shame on them!
Regards,
AJay

Thanks for the positive feedback AJay! It seems as though Casey has posted the exact same reply on multiple posts. I've reached out to hopefully solve the issue, but nonetheless, thanks again for the response.
-Ashley, Sittercity.com

I had the same experience with Care.com.

I was a member of Care.com for nearly 2 years, using them to find people to help around the house when needed. I recently paid for a full membership again, and then they cancelled my membership the next day after renewing. They sent an e-mail with a generic reason about how they can cancel a membership for any reason or no reason in accordance with their terms of agreement. I asked for the exact, specific reason by e-mail twice more, but they sent the same generic e-mail response. I think maybe they did this to me because I explained in a recent job post that I need help doing some things from an errand runner since I'm not an American and still don't know how to do things here. I think the reason they won't say why they cancelled me is because they are discriminating against me for not being an American. Care.com is the one that is unamerican. I'm so upset that I'm thinking about paying their office a visit dierectly to tell them what I think of them since they don't post any customer service phone number, or any phone number, on their web site and since they would probably give the same generic answer over the phone anyway. Never, ever, ever, ever use Care.com.

Care.com has had to settle 73 complaints with the BBB as of this date!

Contact Info:
Customer Service Contact: Robyn Neill, Director of Operations
Phone Number: [protected]
[protected]
Email Address: rneill@care.com

I filed a complaint with the BBB, and this is how it went:

Me:
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Complaint Details:
I was a member of Care.com for nearly 2 years, using them to find people to help around the house when needed. I recently paid for a full membership again, and then they cancelled my membership the next day after renewing. They sent an e-mail with a generic reason about how they can cancel a membership for any reason or no reason in accordance with their terms of agreement. I asked for the exact, specific reason by e-mail twice more, but they sent the same generic e-mail response. I think maybe they did this to me because I explained in a recent job post that I need help doing some things from an errand runner since I'm not an American and still don't know how to do things here. I think the reason they won't say why they cancelled me is because they are discriminating against me for not being an American. They don't post any customer service phone number, or any phone number, on their web site but would probably give the same generic answer over the phone anyway.
Desired Settlement: Change the Store Policy
I want them to reinstate my membership and apologize for their treatment of me.

Care.com:
Friday, March 04, 2011
Care.com takes the safety and security of our site and our members, as well as the adherence to our terms of use, very seriously. When Ms. Lee joined our site, she agreed to our Terms Of Use that state that Care.com reserves the right to remove a member from our private community as we deem appropriate: “Care.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to all or part of the Care.com Site, to remove your profile and/or any content posted by or about you, from the Site, and/or to terminate your membership in Care.com, for any reason or no reason, with or without notice. Following any termination of any member's use of the Site, Care.com reserves the right to send a notice thereof to other members which whom you have corresponded.”
Unfortunately, we will not be able to reopen Ms. Lee’s account with Care.com. We do hope that Ms. Lee was able to find the housekeeper that she was looking for.

Me:
Friday, March 04, 2011
The message sent by Care.com is not any different than what they have already sent to me three times before I contacted the BBB. Their practice of cancelling an account without providing a reason is a very poor business practice even if it is part of the lengthy rules they force everybody to agree to that are so long that nobody bothers reading. Given their unwillingness to state what rules were broken by me and/or the reasons behind their decision, I can only assume that they are disciminating against me after finding out that I'm not an American or they are doing something illegal or inappropriate when finding or using criteria to cancel memberships. What does Care.com have to hide?

Care.com:
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Care.com is an equal opportunity community and we do not discriminate based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. We have found that Ms. Lee has violated the terms of use that she agreed to when joining our community and unfortunately, we will not be able to reopen her account with us. We do wish her luck in finding the housekeeper that she is looking for if she was not able to find it on our site.

Me:
Sunday, March 06, 2011
This is still not an acceptable response or a proper way for a good business to conduct itself. The reason given is still a generalization rather than specifically telling me why my membership was terminated. The general statement that I violated the terms of use without saying which term specifically was violated is not acceptable. The weasely terms of use say that Care.com can terminate a membership for any reason or no reason, so they can terminate anybody anytime for violating the term of “no reason.” I believe it is my right as a customer to be informed of the specific term I violated, and a better business practice would be to inform and warn the customer when they violate a term of use and tell them that they can be terminated if they repeat that violation again in the future. It is unreasonable to expect the customer to know everything that can result in revocation of membership when the terms include “any reason.” I would not have violated a term of use knowingly or intentionally. My membership was terminated only after I included the information in a recent contact with a prospective employee about needing some help since I’m not an American, leaving me to conclude that this must be the “any reason” that Care.com is using to discriminate against me. While they claim that they “do not discriminate based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, ” I can’t help but notice that they didn’t include “national origin.” Unless they can give me a specific term of use that I violated, then I can only make the above conclusion based on the timing.

BBB:
Monday, March 7, 2011
This notification is in regards to your complaint submitted on 3/3/2011 10:08:05 PM against Care.com, Inc.. Complaint # 8521751.
BBB has closed complaint #8521751.
After reviewing the position of all parties, BBB determined that the business made a reasonable effort to address the complaint and has closed the complaint. This complaint will be publicly reported on the business's BBB Business Review for 36 months. If BBB has additional information to provide you to assist you in pursuing your complaint with a government agency, and/or provide you with some educational tips, the information will be displayed below.
Thank you.
Better Business Bureau

[Note: Care.com is a member of the BBB, so the bribes, er, I mean dues they pay give the BBB incentive to side with them even though it is obvious the Care.com failed to state the clear term that I violated for which my membership was terminated. Now there are 74 complaints filed with the BBB against Care.com. 11 of those complaints were closed administratively by the BBB, meaning that the customer was not satisfied. How can they be considered a "better business" when they don't know the fundamental rule of every good business?: THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT]

Care.com sucks. I have been a child care provider on Care for over 3 years and I cancelled my account because I was offered a job, but then it fell through. So I made a new one and when I sent a message about paying for another background check they said they have decided to revoke my membership. Just because I asked about giving them another $8 for something they have on file already! RIDICULOUS! All of my experience is in child care and now I have to find another site to find possible jobs. Thanks for nothing Care.com.

Yes it just gets better with them as they will now report your email to Spam Cop and certain companies may not ever get your resume because of this... they did mine... and its almost impossible to take off, lets hope you get lucky though try emailing them and you'll know.

Please read my complaint: I actually found someone to do my housekeeping and it took them 30 days to reply to me that I can't leave a review for them!

Complaint Type: Consumer to Business Complaint ( BBB )
Nature of complaint: A failure to honor a contract or agreement
Problem description:
I was subscribed to Care.com I hired a wonderful housekeeper and I wanted to leave a review for this person, but when I went to add a review I found I could not leave one. Apparently, there is a time limit on leaving reviews. I contacted customer service and she stated in an email the policy: Unfortunately, the account that you hired this provider through has since been closed, so you will be unable to leave a review on the provider's Care.com account as reviews are posted on the provider's account through your account. Yet, the FAQ on the website states otherwise, as it does not give a time limit on leaving a review: Who can I review?- As a care seeker, you can review any care provider within the service to which you are subscribed. Please review only providers who have worked for you or with whom you've had contact! I would think that a company that "prides itself on finding caring and safe individuals" to watch our children, or just let into our homes, as I hired a housekeeper from them. That they would be interested in their Care.com caregivers receiving a review to let others know about the process, the person, the care, etc. There should not be a time limit on leaving a review.
Desired Settlement: Change the Store Policy
Desired Outcome:
Again, I would like to see a change in this review policy. I think there should not be a time limit on leaving a review for the caregivers of Care.com

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for all your posts. I love this website and I always check it before signing up for anything. The TV Add that they had was very enticing for families needing babysitters or pet sitting, and I was just on their website and I was about to fill out the information and then I thought about checking for reviews and boy was I glad I did. I am now definitely not going to sign up or put any of my time into this website. I really hate when websites have unethical practices, and the funny thing is that they should know by now that website such as complaints board reveals all of their unethical practices so and potential customers read these reviews. Anyways, just wanted to say thanks for all the posts, it saved me time and money!

I am a nanny and I sent an email reply to a lady offering to pay me $400.00 for 6 days. I told her I was disgusted by her offer since it was not minimum wage. Care.com cancelled my profile and membership and they continue to allow this woman to post her 4.00 per hour job on their website. They don't care about nannies and they just want parents to pay them and its all over their website people offering free bedrooms for 40 hours of work from a nanny and NO pay. They cancelled me me because I said in my own words that I was disgusted by the woman who offered me 4.00 per each hour of work. Parents in my area told me that most of the nannies they contact don't have papers (immigrants with no green cards). This website seems like a good solution to find a job or find a babysitter but they don't offer good screenings and they terminate babysitters for complaining about parents who are keeping a slave employee.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/106/245/064/tell-carecom-to-stop-their-unfair-practices/

ilove care.com u guys are haters! LOL

TO: Those who are really pissed off at Care.com for fraudulent charge and misleading advertisement and unstoppable recurring charges even after you cancel the service, PLEASE file a complaint with FBI's Internet Crime Report Center.
If all of us who were scammed by these people file, something GOOD will come out of it.

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

File a Complaint

The IC3 is co-sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Complaints filed via this website are processed and may be referred to federal, state, local or international law enforcement or regulatory agencies for possible investigation. I understand any investigation opened on any complaint I file on this website is initiated at the discretion of the law enforcement and/or regulatory agency receiving the complaint information.

Why there are so many complaint about Care.com? I request everyone to boycott and abandon.

Do your homework. People always complain if they don't get things to go the way they want. I think it is baseless to make stories because God don't like ugly or liars. Care.com is awesome. I know 1st that most of the people who complain are cheap parents who want pay 10 and have too many expectations. If you want free childcare stay home.

I joined Care.com about 2 years ago looking for a nanny position. I had been employed with a family for 16 years as their nanny before this. I found 2 wonderful families through Care.com for which I am still employed on a part time basis. I was looking for a nanny position to complete my week. I applied for a position with one family and was "hired" the next day. On my first day there I realized this was not the right fit, but I wanted to think it through. Keep in mind all communication was through Care.com, so I did not have their phone number and they did not have a land line so I couldn't look in the white pages. I sent the family a VERY NICE email stating that I felt this was not the right position for me. I never heard back from her and was immediately "terminated" from Care.com. My assumption is that she filed a complaint which led to the "termination". I have been a nanny for 25 plus years and I take it very serious. I love what I do and have an amazing bond with all of my families. The email that Care.com sends out to EVERYONE makes it sound like I did something terrible. I never got to defend myself. Anybody can press the little button and make up lies and ruin someones reputation. It sickens me that this women was able to get away with this. Luckily I have 2 devoted families that have backed me up 150%.

I have had awful experiences three times with Care.com. The first was they cancelled my subscription with no explanation; second, they slandered me with a false and incorrect "background check" and last, they claimed I was an agency and cancelled me. These people are racist, opportunists who denigrate the vocation of domestic services. Anyone out there have web page and marketing skills, I have an idea how to pull this company up by the short hairs.

I was with care dot com and posted a profile as a nanny or baby nurse with over 15 yrs. experience. I was offered a job but turned it down due to distance and what was expected of me, a two month old two yr. old twins and a severely disabled child for only 12.00, when i live 30 minutes away, and the fact they had six nanny cams all over the house and one in bathroom for bath times? no trust or reason for that extreme compare to what the family wanted to pay, and having to deal with all of that I said no..the next day a Mom contacted me and wanted to pay me 5.00 a hour for four children I explained to her that's illegal and not even close to minimum wage or respectable to care for four young infants for 1.25 a hr each. I told her to do some research on the laws at least in MI, of hiring private help or care givers, so I told her no thank you that at that wage she wasn't going to get good quality care. Well guess what the very Next day I received a mean Email from CARE.COM stating my profile was terminated not giving me one answer or replying to my responses. I have the right to earn minimum wage or the 15.00 starting rate I charge because I'm very good at what I do and love I've had training and experience. How dare they do that I had over 20 applications out for potential jobs and they screwed me. And now all those potential jobs and my applications are job, loss of wages, I'm reporting them ASAP to the BBB and if I have to, I feel like I may even get a attorney for wrongful removal due unknown reasons, but I could guess why, from a site, they my state their site has every right to remove you but when you apply or tell a client they're cheap in so many words, no way...in my line of work thankfully I've meet many great attorneys, and I'm highly educated not stupid, who I will be calling since they do want to let me have my account where one of those 15 jobs I applied for could've responded be bud know nothing...but unemployment THANKS CARE. NOTHING. I was probably on of the best and most experienced nannies they had on there. I worked there for a great family in 2012 and they said I was the best person they had ever left their child with...the funny thing is I found a job on care. Com last yr. and my family said they loved me I'm done letting these agencies treat people w no respect and there generic rules that they can make up to mean whatever they want at the moment they nee to use them...now what? I think ill start watching babies in my own home where at least I know ill be giving the best care to great families. But I'm def not going to let this go with care I want my profile back or I swear to god I will take legal action on vague contract and unclear written warnings, with no explanations given.. good luck to everyone else be careful and be safe...I'll find my forever family somewhere. God bless and care.com SHAME ON YOU and YOUR CO. BBB I'm on my way along with JEFFERY FIGER LAW OFFICES.

Care.com has unapproved around 10 of my photos. They were all professional photos & did not need to be rotated. I don't know what to do. Is this happening to anyone else?

yes, they have done the same to me. I have no photo, and my stats say no one has viewed my profile. I find that a bit odd as well, seeing as though I message at least 4 parents a day. You mean to tell me NO ONE has been curious about my request. I have parents I babysit for on sittercity.com and they were fine with my photo. I believe care.com forces you to make that payment..

Yes, they are completely bizarre and frankly unfair about their photo approval process. I put up two pictures of just me, taken from the neck up... smiling, with flowers in the background, and they quickly sent me a not approved message with their reasoning being, I may not be "recognizable" or it's "bad quality or perhaps offensive." I find that totally ridiculous and it makes me much less likely to use their services at this point. I'm not going to go have a "Care.com photoshoot" with 100 different variations in hopes of one maybe fitting their guidelines. If this picture was denied, I don't see how any profiles on their website even have pictures. Sorry to rant...

This is a different topic, but still regards Care.com. I have to sound off because I'm a mom who is absolutely sickened by this company's commercials (so much so that I would never consider using its services...looks like that's a good call, judging from the other complaints!), which show bratty children tormenting their caregivers while cutesy music plays and the company owner shrugs and laughs. Is it really funny when a child says "NO!"? Can't we find a proper balance between the uber-strict 50s children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard method and the current laissez faire mentality? I once watched a fellow busy Manhattan mother come home from work and immediately fetch some crackers that her toddler was screaming for before she even removed her shoes...even though the very patient and kind nanny had just told him it was almost dinner time and he couldn't have the crackers because he'd just had a snack. Any idiot could see this was out if guilt, but what did she think she was teaching her son, that mommy loved him? No, she was teaching him that he was more important than her and could always have anything he wanted. So what happens when that little boy grows up and learns a much different lesson from the world? Read Think! by Lisa Bloom and set a standard for healthy boundaries and discipline that will actually create good human beings, not entitled, egomaniacal monsters, PLEASE! And Care.com owner, if you're listening...stop dumbing America down!

They let me know I was being blocked and could no longer use their services for finding a nanny position I had 16 yrs experience was a professional baby nurse high references no complaints ever, they just dropped me even though I paid my membership. I feel like if you turn a potential job down and then the family is mad or upset and they let care know you as a professional said no to employment they dropped us and have turned down our repeated request for a answer to why? They also threatened and did let all my families I applied with that I was removed from care without reason given that's deformation of my character how dare they? I've been a nanny for many years and I'm a great one at that. I may sew I don't know yet I feel degraded.

They didn't approve you because you didn't pay for a membership nor did you pay for a background check, they don't care about the community all they want to do is fatten their pockets. But whats done in the dark will always come to light and before long they will be sued or better yet have a class action law suit, they should've known better than to come to Texas! SCAMMERS DO NO T SIGN UP FOR A MEMBERSHIP!

Who here would like to file a class action lawsuit against care.com?

Care .com is a dirty business. I believe soon they will no longer be in service if we as a community stand up and don't let their inaccurate and possible illegal rules ruin people's reputations. And from the children shown on commercial they really need nanny s who can correct the parents bad parenting of letting children talk back to adult and yell. Great job though with the were a family co. Attitude yah right!

Hi Melcarnley,

We're sorry about your experience with Care.com. In regards to payments between you and a family, Care.com leaves that discussion to be between the caregivers and the families hiring them. We are not an agency, we are a platform set up for families to meet caregivers, and caregivers to meet families. We provide both families and caregivers with the tools they need to make a smart hiring or job decision.

As stated in our Terms of Use that you agree to upon enrollment, Care.com reserves the right to close an account for any reason or no reason, with our without notice. Further, we do not always disclose the reasons as to why an account has been closed.

We apologize for your experience, and wish you the best of luck in your job search!

Regards,
Care.com Member Care Representative

Care.com has the worst customer service ever and zero loyalty to its customers. After paying monthly premiums for over a year, I left a miserable employer (the worst!) who then retaliated by posting an undeserved negative review on my profile. I responded with a post detailing the truth of the matter - which of course was unbecoming to the employer. Care.com allowed the negative review towards myself to stand but would not allow my response. It made no sense. The employer had burned through numerous caregivers in the past (for good reason!) yet Care.com threw me under the bus. Steer clear of this organization. They do not deserve your money.

I was amazingly surprised at how many people have been terminated from Care.com without explaination. I hired an attorney who can not get any information, based on what we all signed saying we can be terminated for any reason at any time without explaination.

Someone, an attorney friend of mine who knows how contracts like this work. She has suggested going on the news or reporting it to the news.

Anyone here willing to do that in there area? I am in the Boston area, and am looking for people to join in. It would also be wonderful if we all did it on our own local news.

What do ya think?

christinemello@comcast.net

Wow, all of these stories are familiar now. I've been a child care giver for 10+ years. I spent 5 years on this site building a great profile with awesome reviews/connections and building relationships with people. I had a clean background check and not one person who would say a bad word about me. All of a sudden I get an email from Care.com stating that my membership has been terminated. Again, like all other stories here, absolutely no reason and when I called they refused to give one. I'm almost 100% sure it's a family that I worked for trying to get back at me for deciding to leave after putting up with the appalling behavior of their child for WAY too long. Was I given a chance to explain my side of the story and the fact that I'm innocent? NO. Their rules are ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS. I have 10+ families that I've worked for that would stand up and defend me and tell of how well I care for children and work hard, but my reputation and my future job possibilities get completely wrecked just because one family, ticked off because things didn't go their way, call up Care and tell them who knows what lie to have my membership terminated. Yeah, thanks for NOTHING Care.com! I'll not be recommending you and your business won't be lasting long if you continue to run it this way.

Care.com is a good newspaper, billboard & website but do not leave any personal info on it. You can slowly find out a little about families and care givers in time. Care.com will ask you for your info & at the same time will write a disclaimer stating that they are not responsible for any damage. I would think there are predators out there who want your info to sell, harass or worse. I don't understand how families would leave info about themselves and children on a website that anyone could join. There are also naive care givers who could be giving info or leads to their personal info (facebook) that mention their whereabouts and friends.Not to mention background checks.
I will not say that care.com is a bad thing though it is not exactly a community paper, it is a world wide paper but it focuses on a direct audience of people who need domestic help or who work in the field. Remember that it is just an online newspaper ad and newspapers do not advise to list your personal info.
Do not put the whole field down there are other leads such as newspapers, school & neighborhood billboards and reputable nanny agencies that are very personal and thorough. Still guard your info and always know who you are allowing your info to go to.There is always age discrimination so remember that it is unlawful for employers to ask your age.

I have been a care.com member for many years as a parent and as a caregiver. There are only 3 reason a parent or a caregiver will be shut down.
No 1 - The parent is angry beacuse the sitter didi not show up for a scheduled interview or babysitting job they send a less than nice text via care..They are shut down. Etiquette is very important on care.com. The same for a sitter... The parents will hire her then compleatly ignore her texts because they have found someone else or changed thier mind. Or change the agreement of times and pay. The sitter is very angry and send a angry email.

No 2 - no one is allowed to ask for a private email address. The text system will flag ypour page and let it go the first time maybe the second if you continue asking for email addresses you will be shut down without warning or explanation.

No 3- No one is allowed to post as a sitter or a parent and try to advertises for a side business. You can not say "And by the way I also cut hiar out of my house" You will be shut down.

i applied for a job for pet sitting several months ago, i lost my job a year ago. i am being scammed harassed by phone texts and emails and you need to check the people who are advertising for a pet sitter ect and take these sick people i am so annoyed and the have my info all of it

I have done my own investigation on this company Care.com. it is a fraudulent misrepresented company that should be shut down by the federal trade commission for defrauding both parents and babysitters and putting babies and kids lives in danger daily. Background checks are provided by a cut rate outside .com company that clearly states they are not liable for any accuracy or completeness since no real live id is ever seen by anyone and any stolen or borrowed DL# can bu used to pass. The BBB is covering for all the fraud that is going on by awarding Care.com an A rating for a $500 a yr membership fee, that allows Care.om to hand pick reviews and the rating. 2 american families have come home to dead babies and this is what they read when they opened their email to plan the funeral. "We at care.com reserve the right to terminate any membership for any reason or no reason at anytime with no refund or explanation. This is the auto generated response Care.com sends out to anyone that dare to report any issues. The phone call is recorded and the account is terminated for legal reason with no explanation. Care.com will terminate for as little as a petty argument over a spot on the carpet to a baby dies. They treat it all with the same with the upmost disrespect with no apology. Imagine opening your email while planning a funeral for a dead baby and reading that. Unethical and disgusting are the words for that.